Shift Pt 2 - Kozume Kenma
Au: Regular (timeskip)
Tags/Warnings: Dual POV, use of a pseudonym (username: ForestFire) instead of (Y/N) in most cases, swearing.
Word Count: 2k
Pt 1 | Pt 2 | Pt 3 | Pt 4
Pressing your phone into your ear with your shoulder, you riffled through your bag to find your house key.
"I'll be there. Of course. Our deal still stands through, right?." You said before cursing under your breath as some receipts fell to the floor. You scrambled to pick them up.
"Okay, Forest. I'll let you go. Just remember the date, I'll put it in your calendar."
"That would be great, thank you."
The call ended as you walked through the door.
Throwing everything onto the nearest chair, you rushed to set up your PC and grab dinner before your stream started. Not even a few seconds after getting in and Uvo and Solarii were blowing up your phone with messages.
Ramen would have to do for now.
By the time the water boiled, you were already late. So, you scrambled to get your computer setup.
Immediately, your awaiting chat filled the comments.
"Can't talk right now. We are doing a PvP first-person shooter. Oh, hell."
You looked at the game your friend had sent you to download the other day, finally letting the realisation of what you were playing set in.
"I was way too out of it to realise what we would be playing. This is going to suck for me."
You entered the group chat, waiting for the chime to tell you you were connected to the voice channel. They were already chatting away.
"Hi, I'm here. I'm here!"
"You're late."
A shiver ran down your spine, making you stand straighter. You knew that dull, gentle voice. Years of laying on your university dorm bed, kicking your feet as you watched him stream and spoke in his comments.
"Hi, KenKen."
You froze, lifting your finger off your set voice button and smacked your forehead with an open palm. The remaining sting kept its shape. "I just said that." You look at your camera with a grimace, stomach dropping as your familiar term was caught on stream. "GAH, I'VE NEVER TALKED TO HIM BEFORE."
Your chat went haywire, making you groan and melt into your chair until your knees hit the floor.
"I guess I have to come clean," You sighed, lifting yourself back into a sitting position and saving your —likely now— bruised knees. "I was a regular in Kodzuken's chat while still in uni before I started streaming myself. KenKen was a common thing to call him amongst his followers back then."
There was no audible response from Ken, and while you knew why (you chose to go with touch to speak while waiting for the game because of him) but not hearing his words made you now more nervous.
Solarii, then Uvo, finally noticed your presence.
"Forest!"
Oh, thank goodness.
"Ah, everyone's here. Any issues getting booted up? Any questions?" Uvo followed.
"Too many." You responded.
"Eh, you'll be fine. Teams of two, at random. You won't know who you're with till we are in. The goal is to get the most kills with the least deaths. You will be linked to your teammate for voice chat but won't hear anyone else until the round ends. Any questions?"
"So many."
"Great! Let's get started."
You groaned as your chat laughed at you.
As your game loaded, you switched your voice chat settings to be voice-activated and took as many bites of warm ramen as possible.
"Ready?"
You choked. "Auggh fuck. Ya ready."
"Okay."
Staring at your chat with distressed eyes, you mouthed the words "save me" only to get more laughter in response.
<Forest has a crush oooooh>
"He's going to kill me."
"That would be rather difficult; we’re on the same team."
You squeaked. "I forgot my mic was on for a second."
"Hmm."
The game loaded up. You pulled your chair closer to your desk by using your elbows, fingers ready on your keyboard.
"First, we head left and up the ramp for higher ground the other teams will be spawning at the other 3 corners of the map," Kodzuken said calmly as the loading screen came to a close.
Your nerves were vibrating.
"Kay." You moved your character.
"Left, Fern, left. Are you dyslexic?"
Fern? Your heart jumped into your throat. But instead of dwelling on the sudden nickname, you tried to respond. "No. I don't know. Maybe? I was never good at reading." You turned your character to follow him around a shipping crate and up a wooden ramp.
At the next level, you and Kodzuken are covered on 3 sides with an open wall that would allow you to shoot down into the field. You scour over the wreckage of shipping crates, wooden boxes and rusted machinery for any movement but find none.
“See anything?” you ask, eyes catching the stacked boxes, perfect for ducking behind.
“Nothing yet.”
You approach the boxes and make your character run into the right angle, jumping when the screen jitters.
“What are you doing?” Ken’s dull voice asks.
“Trying to get higher.”
“Some parts of the map have blocks, you can’t get up there.”
“Well, I’m sure gonna try.”
Pressing hard into your space button, as if it will make your character jump higher, the screen glitches, and you cheer at your glitch being a success. That is, until you realise you’ve taken damage and, instead of being on top of the crate, you’d manage to fall down a level, looking up at Ken's character above you.
“Nice going, Fern.”
“Hey! It almost worked!” Your screen went grey. “Damn it.”
Ken clicked his tongue. “Yep, and now I’m exposed, and you have to wait 30 seconds until you re-spawn.”
You heard Kenma sigh while looking at the ending round statistics. In any other round, he likely would have come in first or second place. You ended up in 3rd. Kenma earned 25 kills and you earned 23 deaths which inevitably balanced you out to come in a central placement. You could feel the dark hole of embarrassment waiting for you to fall into it.
“I'm sorry.”
“Get better or go back to Arcadia’s Inferno.”
You frowned. “Don’t say it as if it’s a bad thing. You play it too!”
“Ya. But better than you.”
You huffed. “You’re gonna regret saying that.” The voice channel reconnected everyone, and you jumped to speak first. “I want another teammate, KenKen is mean!”
Ken grumbled.
Uvo laughed, “Well, you did cost him the win, Forest. And besides, teams are assigned randomly. You have a 1 in 7 chance to be paired with him again.”
X laughed, “No worries, Forest. If we get paired up I’ll take you to victory!”
“Hell ya!” you grinned. “Take that, Ken!”
“X and Tawny came in last.”
“Oh,” you slumped.
“Shut it, Kodzu! I can win! Just stop killing me!”
“Stop being an open target, and I will.”
At the end of the stream, Kenma lifted himself from his chair and made his way to the kitchen. A buzzing was going off incessantly on the counter, and a cat hovering above the source, swiping at it with a clawed paw.
“Ah, stop it.” Kenma lifted the feline off the counter and tossed it to the floor before grabbing his phone with a yawn.
“Hello?”
“Greetings. Sorry for the late call. Does this happen to be Kodzuken?”
“Are you a stalker?”
“No, I work for Dungeon as a part of the Advertising and Events department. I would have called earlier, but you’ve been streaming for 8 hours, and I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“I took a lunch break.” Kenma’s brows furrowed.
“And so did I. Anyways, I’m calling to invite you to the ADI 4 launch event on the first Saturday of June before the games release.”
“Ugh,” Kenma groaned. “Why?”
“Um, Well.” There was a shuffling sound on the other side of the phone. “You are a prominent member of the ADI community and have contributed much over the years. We wanted to make the event big and invite people to play the game before the official release to increase hype.”
It was very tempting. Dungeon never released advanced copies. The only people that were able to play before hard were a few in company speedrunners, and families whole signed NDAs just to make sure the game ran well for the average user and didn’t glitch too much, but just enough so that speedrunners could enjoy breaking the game a bit. Playing the game before it's released would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
However, he would likely have to stream on dungeons accounts, which, while would bring his fans to them, would mean he wouldn’t be able to get his first genuine reaction on his own channel, free of spoilers.
“Hmmm, I don’t know.” I don’t want any spoilers, and streaming my first playthrough on my channel is really important to me.
The woman on the other side of the phone sighed. “That is totally understandable, and we’ve accounted for that. We will be live-streaming the event and direct viewers automatically to your accounts when it comes to your times to play. You won’t lose any viewers or income; donations will be closed until the stream switches to your accounts. And you will get an advanced copy of the game to play there and take home so you can continue the playthrough in your own time without losing progress.”
Very tempting, Kenma’s heart raced with excitement. “You said accounts?”
“Ah yes, there will be a few other streamers there. You’d each get 30 to 45 minutes of streaming time if you want to stream. You don’t have to. You can just attend the event and get a game copy.”
“Who else is going?”
“Only a few.” Kenma poured a glass of water and sat on the counter, crossing his legs as he listened. “Um, Turret, Hux, and Kenji. But they’re choosing not to stream. And ForestFire.”
Kenma glared. “Okay. I’ll be there.”
“Excellent, I’ll put your name on the guest list and send you an email with all the details.”
He hung up without saying goodbye, and at the sound of his phone hitting the counter Cat, the cat, jumped back onto the counter to paw at it.
It wasn’t surprising that Forest was invited. Not surprising at all. Kenma groaned. Somehow, despite having created content for longer than them and talked about Arcadia’s Inferno longer than them, Kenma had somehow become second in line behind them. Kenma groaned, picking up Cat, and carrying him to the couch where he could cuddle with the furry animal comfortably.
He’d be attending a busy event filled to the brim with sociable people and likely have to be in Forest's company the whole time. Their loud, excitable company. Kenma sighed, rolling onto his back and taking a floppy Cat with him.
He was used to loud people. All his friends were the kind to be able to approach and start a conversation with a stranger or go to parties and have fun all night. Kenma spent most of his time trading stocks, doing work for Bouncing Ball Corp. or gaming. Alone, all alone in his big, dark and quiet house with a cat named Cat.
He was used to loud people, but Forest was an odd one. Somehow they managed to creep under his skin and stay there after just a year on the platform. Staring up at his ceiling, he could practically see them laughing, with a giant glittering smile and squinted eyes, before running out of breath and gasping for air, or smirking while sending a clever quip to the audience. Even the sight of them staring wistfully at their computer screen while playing Arcadia’s Inferno was burned into his retinas.
His heart thumped, stomach-churning while his body heat increased and sent flames to his fingertips.
He loathed Forest. Fern. He hated them.
“Get out of my head.” He slapped his hands over his eyes, freeing Cat from his hold.
I have been helping prep and plan like… 3 events? All starting this weekend and going 3 weekends in a row. I’m pooped, my boss is certainly more pooped than me. And then I have three weeks to plan a Twice event for their concert. Oh my god…. Love it though. -Bacon
Posted: 22/05/2023
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